Mother Teresa

Numerous articles I have read say, "How can one woman do all of this greatness?" To me, this shows how people can easily create sterotypes that women are not capable of of achieving what Mother Teresa did. She is among the most facisnating and highly respected women in the 20th century. Mother Teresa was devoted to saving lives through sheer determination. The qualities shown through her leadership styles are just shocking. There are not many other women who have achieved such things. She did this through passion and focus. When Mother Teresa was 79 years old she was told by doctors to take it easy because of her heart condition. She explained that what was the utmost importance was not her health, it was taking care of what she had started and making sure she did all she could to save people's lives. Mother Teresa was anexceptional leader who exhibited charisma and could inspire people on her team to motivate their self-interests to achieve the visioin. Following her actions, women in the workforce should study Mother Teresa's leadership style and begin to develop their own style to help shatter the glass ceiling.

Men Hold 'Vast Majority' of Top Jobs in Media

http://www.thewrap.com/media/column-post/glass-ceiling-report-men-hold-vast-majority-top-jobs-media-25712

This article talks about how women in the media industry only account for 27% of top media professionals. This is almost half the amount of people in Eastern Europe. There are many reasons that go into this but one interesting aspect that this article brought up is that at the International Women Media Leader's Conference, 75 female executives that will be attending will be voting on a plan to help level the playing field. This is something that many different women in different industries should consider to help women climb the corporate ladder. If the women already in top executive positions took their experiences and advice and created a plan to help other women looking to advance, it might be helpful in giving women ideas and tips as they progress in corporate America. If more women took this approach, women might be more likely to take risks and try and shatter more glass ceilings.

Qualities of Women Leaders

This article focuses on differentiating women leaders and men who lead. It focuses on the characteristics that women leaders posses that some times make them more effective then men.

A year long study by the management consulting firm, Caliper, identifies a number of characteristics that distinguish women leaders from men. It was said that women are more assertive, persuasive and more willing to take risks then men.

Do you think these three findings are true? I think that a lot of the times women are more assertive and persuasive then men but I am not sure that I agree on woman being more willing to take risk then men.

The article also mentions how woman are more flexible and good listeners. They are able to relate to their followers which makes it easier for them to trust and listen to the leaders. Women are able to have others see their point of view because they genuinely understand and care about where others are coming from.

In chapter 9 we learned about charismatic leaders and I think that a lot of women who are successful leaders are charismatic leaders because they are able to get engagement from their followers and they truly care about the follower.

http://womensissues.about.com/od/intheworkplace/a/WomenLeaders.htm

Breaking through the Glass Ceiling

Although the glass ceiling barrier has been making strides over the years, there is still a long way to go until it will be able to be shattered. Currently, the top positions held by women is at a measly 3%. Yes, women have been moving up into higher management spots and such, but there are still too many barriers. Not only barriers that are brought on by men, but women themselves. Some women that may be perfect for these positions do not have the correct way of advertising their skills properly. Credibility is extremely hard to gain, especially for women. Some suggestions for shattering the glass ceiling could be to put women, credible or not, into decision making roles. From their they will learn the necessary steps to being a higher-up, and can gain credibility from hands on training and guidance. There are too many creative women to leave out half of the population and only have men in top management positions. By giving women a chance to make decisions, they will get more comfortable and are likely to accept these positions without hesitation.

What can businesses do to help shatter the glass ceiling?

Although there are several reasons to blame why there are not as many women in higher executive positions in the business world or why women make on average around $4,000 less then men with the same qualifications in their first job after receiving their MBA, what can business do to help women succeed? Well this article talks about some of their options.

1. Businesses should install a checks and balance system to weed out any unconscious bias that may be going on in the organization.
2. Try involving more women as board directors. It is proven that women outperform men in senior management when there are more women involved in top executives.

There are several things that a successful woman should be aware of if she is trying to climb up the corporate ladder. Some of these include doing more negotiating, be open to ideas but take control of situations, but also not try to mimic the decision styles that men do to avoid stereotypes but do what you feel is right. However, there are more things that the organizations can do to ensure that women are able to climb the ladder more easily.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2010-04-15-column15_ST1_N.htm

Irene Rosenfeld CEO of Kraft Foods

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/movers_and_shakers/article6999118.ece This article is a great example of what chapter 13 women and leadership tries to explain which is Women can be just as effective of a leader as a man. The only difference that chapter 13 makes between male and female leadership is that women tend to have a more democratic or participative leadership style then men. This article shows that Irene was able to be a great leader and go head to head with Warren Buffet over the acquisition Kraft wanted to make of Cadbury. Buffet is Kraft's biggest shareholder and felt that the acquisition was not the right thing for the company, but Irene felt that the acquisition was the best for the company and so she went ahead and did it even though it was very expensive for Kraft. Even in the face of disagreement Irene was able to make the right decision for Kraft and lead her company to further success.

The rise and fall of Carly Fiorina

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/09/scitech/pcanswer/main672809.shtml This article talks about the type of leader Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of HP, was. Carly became CEO of the company at a time when the business was declining, but her attempts to strengthen the company failed and upset many employees and coworkers. After reading this article I would classify Carly's leadership style as an S1 directing style on the situation leadership II grid. A directing style of leadership is characterized by a leader who focuses on communicating goal achievement and spends smaller amounts of time using supportive behavior. This type of leadership style should be used when employees are low in competence and high in commitment. I do not necessarily think the HP employees fit this development level which is probably why Carly's directing style failed. I came to the conclusion that Carly had an S1 directing leadership style because of how she went about the merger with Compaq. Even though many of her employees and stockholders were against the idea she still went ahead with the merger anyway, which shows that she was focused on goal achievement and not on supporting her staff. Another reason I would categorize Carly as and S1 directing leadership style is because of how she strayed away from the tradition of HP and instead tried to compete with Dell's low cost commodity business and IBM's high end high cost consulting and customer service business. This again shows that she was very goal oriented and did not seem to show support for HP and their tradition of doing what they were good at instead of changing the company to compete with their competitors. I think Carly may have taken this approach as a CEO at HP because she came in to the company as an outsider. Before becoming CEO she has never worked at the company before. I think because of her lack of experience with the company she felt she had to come in strong and show her employees and stake holders that she could be directive and powerful. Unfortunately, this approach was unsuccessful and Carly was ousted from the company. Angela Pitzo

Become A Better Listener

In the Leadership Communication powerpoint, we learned about the different types of active listening. This website provides ways to become a better listener. Listening is an important part of being a leader. As a leader, can you effectively lead others when you fail to pay attention to their needs? Or what your role is? Or is you are unaware of what the task at hand is? Probably not.

On the website, it states that individuals have their own preferences on how they take in information. We all translate what we hear or say based on who we are. The sum total of our heredity and our life experiences, who we are, all of it serves as a filter to everything we come into contact with. This also reminds me of Situational Leadership; how you have to alter your approach based on the situation. When it comes to listening, for example, we are generally more inclined to listen to things that we are interested in. Therefore, to be a more effective leader, and to ensure that your employees are listening to you, it is probably smart to attempt to engage everyone; to make everyone interested in what you are talking about.

The website also suggests a few things you should to to be a more effective listener; you should CARE for those you're listening to:

C - Concentrate - focus on the speaker

A - Acknowledge - through body language - nod your head occasionally or say "uh-huh"

R- Respond - ask for questions for clarification and interest

E - Empathize - share in their emotions and feelings

A final tip the website offers is this: If you want to communicate well with your listener(s), make it a point to speak their "language".

http://www.positive-way.com/become_a_better_listener.htm

The Trouble With Business Ethics

*For some reason I was unable to find a more recent article to fit what I wanted to blog about, but I still found this to be a pretty insightful article.

This article talked about post-Enron and WorldCom scandals, how companies have put more emphasis on increasing ethical policies and awareness, but how it can be potentially detrimental to employees as well. In Chapter 15 of our textbook, we discussed Deontological Theories, which focus on the actions of the leader and his/her moral obligation and responsibilities to do the right thing. In the article I read, a recent Wal-Mart case shows that it can be difficult to push "ethics" in the corporate world. A few months after going through a new employee training session with a heavy emphasis on ethics, an employee by the name of Chalace Epley Lowry, acted on the instruction to report any activity that seemed suspicious. Lowry told the company's ethics office that she believed her supervisor, Mona Williams, (VP of corporate communications) might have partaken in some insider trading. Wal-Mart determined that Williams had not done anything wrong, but Lowry's identity was revealed to her in the process, leading Lowry to feel that she could no longer work in that department. Lowry was quoted saying, "I acted in good faith, just pointing out that there might have been some wrongdoing, but it was really disheartening to see how it was handled."
The case in point depicts a situation of what could potentially happen if someone reports any behavior they feel to be unethical, but end up being wrong. This could obviously deter people from wanting to partake in any "whistle-blowing activity". It makes you wonder if all of these ethical policies are really that beneficial after all. Lowry was only trying to follow her recent training and it ended up costing her her job.

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jun2007/db20070622_221291.htm

Do Women take care and men take charge?

A section in chapter 13 talks about the prejudice for women in the workforce, such as the stereotype of women taking care and men taking charge. It also addresses the fact that women should be more masculine in their roles, as far as decision making, but not be too masculine.

This makes me wonder if anything a women does is ever enough in the workplace. I sometimes feel that when women take charge they are seen as controlling rather than being leaders. There were a few articles that stated that a big reason for these stereotypes are created by women themselves because they are not confident enough about their leadership abilities.

The article below addressed different ways of why women are seen as taking care and men taking charge. Like discussed before, women are more nurturing then men and are more focused on getting along then getting ahead. Do you think that we, as women, don't know how to balance getting along while being in charge and getting ahead?

http://www.catalyst.org/publication/94/women-take-care-men-take-charge-stereotyping-of-us-business-leaders-exposed

What would you do?

After reading chapter 13, and the very interesting cases, I started to wonder what I would do if I was in those situations. The case that interested me the most was the case of Lisa Weber, the portfolio manager of the Wall Street firm. I thought it was interesting that she was aware of what went on in the firm but at the meetings with the CEOs she never stated that or the fact that she actually advised some of the people in the room.

It was stated in the case that she was content with giving advice and feeling like one of the boys. I personally think that this is the issue with us women advancing in the workplace. We seek acceptance and do not always challenge situations like these because we want to be viewed as team players. That is why we remain in the positions we are in and the men advance.

Once again I think this happens because women are sometimes too bashful to recognize their leadership qualities. As stated in the book, "women are more likely to take informal, as opposed to official, leadership roles, and use terms such as facilitator or organizer instead of leader." Therefore, women are okay with being the person behind the scenes and when they finally decide that they need to be up front in the spotlight they are turned down. Women, I feel, create the "glass ceiling" for themselves when they don't speak up and go through the motions just because they want to be accepted.

Back to the case, I question what would I do? My response to my own questions is that I would speak up at the meetings and let the CEO know that I have been advising the partners. Then again that is just me personally because I don't like to sit back and pretend just to be accepted. In this case Lisa ended up quitting and starting on her own investment firm. I think that I would have tried a little harder to prove to the CEO that I had the potential before starting my own firm because by walking away you only continue to leave the door closed for other women.

My question is, what you would do? and do you think that we help create that image of women being incapable of serving in leadership roles?

Sticky Floor Discussion

In continuing with my last post, I would like to tell a story that one of my professors talked about. This relates to how it is possible that although women believe that at times they are being discriminated against, leadership takes hard work and dedication. Some women do not have this power, but one women did, but she had to give everything else up.

There was a grad student in the professors class. The first day of class, they went around the room saying their names, what they were studying, and what they wanted to do. When they reached one woman's turn, she said her name, what she was studying, and that she wanted to some day be the CEO of Caterpillar. Now, the other student's responses were much less than this, so of course, the professor asked her some questions about how she would manage. A few years later she came back with a response for him. She was now the CEO of the company and was married. Her husband had wanted to have a child, but she was right where she wanted to be with her career and only agreed to having the child if the husband took over the parenting. Turns out, she was gone in the morning before the child woke up, home after he was sleeping, and she basically did not exist to him.

Now, many women would be in awe over the attitude this woman carried, and the fact that she had carried this child for 9 months, birthed him, and now left the responsibilities to the father because she didn't want a child. She broke the glass ceiling, but gave up a lot along the way.

I believe that the idea of the sticky floor has a lot to do with women wanted to settle down, get married, and have a family that she will actually have time to spend with them.

What would you rather do, be a mom and have a mediocre career, or be married to your career and maintain the focus only on that career?

Women do better once they break the glass ceiling

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Women+better+once+they+break+through+glass+ceiling/4410242/story.html

Although women have a hard time reaching top level of management in many organizations, those that do are proven more successful then men. This article in the Vancouver Sun talks about the same stereotypes that our book and class has discussed of women in top leadership roles. Women are usually looked at as too "male" and are seen in a negative light, or too empathetic and not tough enough to deal with the demands of being a CEO. However, this article shows that many top women leaders show leadership traits that have proven to be successful. These traits include decisive and collaborative, competitive and team driven, power and ethics, and capability and curiosity. Because women in top leadership roles use things such as collaboration to help make their decisions they are not giving out that "know-it-all" persona but also making their co-workers feel like they are important part of the organization and decision making process. Although the glass ceiling effect is still something we deal with everyday we should take note of how women have become successful and think about how that could help other women move up the ladder in corporate America.

http://www.fmwf.com/media-type/news/2011/02/women-in-the-boardroom-the-glass-ceiling-or-the-sticky-floor/

After reading chapter 13, "Women and Leadership," and the article "Women in the boardroom: the Glass Ceiling, or the Sticky Feet I was able to make a few connections, and found some interesting information. The book explains how many women are less likely to hold a leadership role that is as effective as a males. This may be true due to a woman's want to maintain peace and show they care while the leader role has been masculinized making it more difficult for women to get the job done. Data shows that women in leadership roles tend to be more participative rather than delegating and more motivating like men have shown.
This ties to the attached article, because although women are feeling like they are being discriminated against, some studies show otherwise. Leadership roles that have been lead by women have usually failed. On occasion a good leadership job is maintained by a woman. However, the article talks about how although women may do a good job at their job, because they don't focus on politics and world events, they tend to miss important chances at taking risks and ultimately, making decisions that are right for the company's future. The article says this "It might not be the glass ceiling, but the sticky floor’ that is partly to blame." The sticky floor pertains to women who are not interested in becoming leaders because they want to also have a family and not be married to their jobs. This situation can be looked at in two different ways. So I ask you: is the glass half empty, or half full? Would you say there is a glass ceiling, or a sticky floor?

Indra K. Nooyi

http://leadership.bcg.com/americas/nooyi.aspx

This article gives four good examples for why Indra Nooyi the CEO of Pepsi Co has a (5,5) Middle-of-the-Road Management style in the Blake and Mounton's Managerial Grid. Middle-of-the-Road Management is described as adequate organization performance is possible through balancing the necessity to get work out while maintaining morale of people at a satisfactory level.
The first example from the article that leads me to believe the Indra has a (5,5) management style is when she talks about the performance with purpose movement she is making with Pepsi. When describing this movement she says that the word purpose has three elements. One of the elements she describes is talent. Which refers to Pepsi Co employees. Indra says she wants to make sure that people that work at Pepsi are able not just to make a living, but have a life. This comment shows that she cares about her employees and understands that they have lives outside of the business.
A second example that Indra has a (5,5) leadership style is because when asked if she reduced R & D during the economic downturn she responded that they increased it. This statement shows that even in hard times Indra is still very task related.
A third example that helps to show that Indra has a (5,5) management style is when she talks about how CEO's of the future need to have emotional intelligence and treat their employee's right. This example again shows that Indra is not only focused on the task and performance side of Pepsi,but also concerned with the well being of her employee's.
The last example that supports my conclusion the Indra has a Middle-of-the-Road Management style is when she talks about how CEO's need to stop focusing on the short term and focus on the long term. This helps to prove that Indra is task oriented and not only is concerned with Pepsi performance in the short run, but also in the long run as well.

Women & Quotas: Will it Break The Glass Ceiling?

http://blogs.forbes.com/sashagalbraith/2011/02/25/women-quotas-will-it-break-the-plexi-glass-ceiling/

With the number of men in the boardroom greatly out numbering women, Sasha Galbraith, the author of this article suggests that maybe a law needs to be put in place to help women break through the glass ceiling and even out the number of men to women in upper management positions. Both Norway and France have instituted quota laws to help make sure publicly traded companies have women in their board of directors. As we learned in chapter 13, the only difference in leadership that has been found between men and women is that women tend to lead in a more Democratic or participative manner. They also tend to use more of a transformational style, which is a style that emphasizes intrinsic motivation and follower development. Since these leadership styles are associated with the contemporary notions of effective leadership there should be no reason for women to be kept from the board room. With chapter 13's evidence that women can be just as effective leaders as men do you think that the United States should institute a law, like Norway and France, that sets a quota for the percent of women that have to be included in the board room in publicly traded corporations? If so, would this be helpful or hurtful to progress of women in the world?

"Women make more trusted bosses"

One of the five "traits" of authentic leadership is establishing connected relationships. In the article provided below, male employees were particularly confident in their female bosses' abilities to do their job well. They also considered them to be highly principled and honest. But what impressed male employees most was the woman's knowledge of what their employees have to deal with in their day-to-day lives. The fact that women can be more understanding and authentic; showing more appreciation for the effort that employees put in, not only helps boost their morale at the workplace, but is also a big driver of trust. So essentially, employees are more likely to do better work when their boss is female. This goes a long with being able to persuade your staff that you are a fair leader that can be trusted. Barbara Socking, CEO of Oxfam GB, says "People have to believe that what you're doing is very fair - then they will trust and go along with an enormous amount of what you need to do". This article states that that is exactly what is needed as we work to get out the recession.

http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/bulletin/mtdailybulletin/article/1025520/women-trusted-bosses/

Numbers of women in executive positions are down around the world.

     Many of us see the small numbers of women in top leadership roles in the United States and don't think much about the number of women around the world that are having the same problem. In almost every country that The Financial polled, the number of women in top leadership roles in organizations are down, Some of these countries include India and Japan.
     Many of the reasons that women in the United States are not considered to for top leadership positions is because of their difference in Human Capital differences, Gender differences and types of leadership styles as well as the stereotypes and bias that happen between men and women. These problems are also likely to be problems for women in countries across the globe but there are other things to considered in different cultures as to why women may not be considered for top executive positions.
     Many countries have very different views on the differences between women and men in their cultures. This could be a huge hurdle that many women in places such as the United Arab Emirates to even be considered for these positions. Other difficulties that could be a problem are the best way to enter into a male dominated environment. Many times if women have a leadership that is similar to a males they are rated poorly because of the stereotypes that are thought of for women. These women in different countries may need to think of the best way that they can relate to both men and women as well as a way that is acceptable within their religion.

http://finchannel.com/Main_News/Business/83119_Thailand_and_Georgia_Lead_Women_in_Business_Rating/

Lack of Self-Promotion Hurts Women in Large Firms

In Chapter 13 of our textbook, we learned that there are essentially 3 explanations for why women are underrepresented in high-level leadership positions: human capital, prejudice, and gender differences. Gender differences deal with the issue that women are simply just different from men. This argument claims that women's underrepresentation in elite leadership positions is a result of differences in leadership style and effectiveness. Our textbook provides sufficient evidence to say that women are no less motivated or intelligent or worse leaders. However, there is research to indicate that women are less likely than men to promote themselves for leadership positions. The article provided below talks about how that lack of self-promotion hurts women in large law firms. They use the example of Dorthy from the Wizard of Oz as a leader. How she solved the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion's problems, but at the end of it, did not look for any recognition or reward. The author says that that is why no one knows what she did and no one considered her a leader. Not surprisingly, only 2% of the chairs of major law firms are women and only19% of the partners at large law firms are women. The author also says that one reason for this definitely pertains to the fact that the old boys' club, unconscious bias, and outright resentment of women who ask for business or leadership opportunities are still a threat to many law firms. And that it is not that male lawyers are better at their jobs or more successful, it's simply just that women are not as adamant about "strutting their stuff" as men. The article also provides a list of ways to break the barriers that hold women back from positions of power in law firms.

http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/amlawdaily/2009/07/self-promotion.html

Is There Really a Glass Ceiling for Women?

The author of this article said she had received many emails from women, asking her if she really felt there was a glass ceiling for women.
She refers to a new term that two authors feel fit the issue better, labyrinth; meaning a place constructed of intricate passageways. I also feel that is a better term than glass ceiling. Glass ceiling indicates that it is a dead end and there is no way to get past the obstacle. The term labyrinth, gives hope. It acknowledges that it will be challenging, but that you just have to find your way through the "passageways".
The author also provides a few tips in regards to the glass ceiling: don't use it as an excuse, create a career strategic plan, do your research, and quit thinking about a glass ceiling. In the article, she goes more in depth.

http://blogs.forbes.com/work-in-progress/2010/11/22/is-there-really-a-glass-ceiling-for-women/

Have Women Shattered the Glass Ceiling?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2010-04-15-column15_ST1_N.htm

This article gives a few statistics about women and where we stand today in the business world. It was interesting to me to read about how there were only 34 women out of 776 students at Harvard in 1973! The number of women in school and businesses have definitely increased! It has not increased to the point where we outnumber men but I think that it will definitely get there at one point. Maybe I just have high hopes because we still have that glass ceiling both in schools and corporations.
In the article it states that in Fortune 500 companies women occupy 15% of board seats and are 3% of CEOs. This made me think of the College of Business here at ISU. I realize that although there are a lot of women in the State Farm Hall of Business building the men still outnumber us. There have been occasions where there are only three women in a class of 25 students! I think that as more women get engaged in the business world the easier it will be for us to overcome the glass ceiling!

Cracking the Male Code of Office Behavior

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/jobs/06pre.html?scp=4&sq=glass%20ceiling%20effect%20&st=cse

In this article the author, Shaunti Feldhahn, shares what she has learned from years of research about mens perceptions of women that can effect them in the workplace. One of the major findings she came across was that men are able to turn off their emotions while doing business. Women on the other hand take things very personally and can even become emotional over things that take place in the work place. Shaunti says that these actions make women appear less business-savvy or experienced, which can put them at a disadvantage. The article also talks about how women who ask questions of a man in a group setting make the man feel challenged even though the women feels that they were asking a reasonable question. By calling men out in the workplace women may make them want to avoid us. A last discovery the the author made was that sometimes women try to hard to act like men and this does not work in their favor and can become distracting. In chapter five, the situational leadership style suggest that leaders should change their style of leadership to fit the followers. Do you think women should change their work style to accomodate the different types of people they work with?

One Woman's Quest at Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling

http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/innovation/article/glass-ceiling-breaker-adriane-brown-katie-morell

After reading many different articles, I thought this was an amazing breakthrough for one woman, and motivation for many others. The article states facts about her childhood, goals, and accomplishments. Adriane Brown is the president and COO of Intellectual Ventures and on the list of women to watch in Fortune's Magazine. She states that women need a voice and their work needs to speak the loudest. Shattering the glass ceiling is not only challenging for women in general, let alone African American women. Adriane shows that it can be done, and more women should strive to have a voice.

Obstacles Women face Entering the Corporate World

http://hubpages.com/hub/Women-in-the-Corporate-World

This article is very interesting and touches on a lot of key struggles women face when entering the corporate world. It explains how corporate America thinks that women cannot do the same job as men can. It also touches on how women struggle more then men do to climb the corporate ladder.

I think that most of the time the glass ceiling is present for women because of the precautions we take, for example in the article is speaks about women having to cover all the information before taking a risk, our struggle to delegate, and the difference between our verbal and nonverbal language compared to men. All these factors impose a struggle for us women to compete against men in the corporate world. For the most part I think this is why there are more men leaders than there are women.

Women focus too much on the maternal aspect of things, as far as having a high concern for the people and not so much for the productivity. I think that this is why it is harder for women to compete with men. However, I think that eventually we will have more women leaders than we have in the past, don't know if more then men. What do you all think?

America Alvarez

Women's success at a glance

http://http://www.videtteonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33753:womens-success-at-a-glance&catid=44:viewpointeditorials&Itemid=56

I found this article in the Daily Vidette last week and thought that it would raise some interesting questions for our blog. The article talks about the issue that college graduates are facing with trying to find jobs. Many people are deciding to attend graduate school because they have been unable to find work. The article argues that this may not be helpful to women because graduate school will only cost them more money. When these women graduate from graduate school they will also most likely be at the age where getting married and starting a family is important to them. This may put women at a disadvantage for getting jobs because employeers might rather hire men so they do not have to worry about women job candidates leaving for maternity leave.
Do you guys think that women miss out on opportunities for advancement in the work place because they have to leave to have and raise their children? Do you think this may be the reason for the glass ceiling effect?

The real statistics of women in the workplace Blog post 2) by: Kelli Hall

This is a youtube video that I found that looks at some real statistics about women in the workplace and some reasons that could contribute to their low numbers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEBiIFHQqfE

I thought that this video was great to start with because it looks at some of the real statistics of women in the workplace. Only 16% of board members in most companies are composed of women and there are still 10% of businesses that don't have women on their boards at all.
I think that many people believe that The Glass Ceiling effect is very minimal now because there are so many more women that are going to college and entering the workforce. We see this especially at ISU where the ratio of women to men is much higher.
This video suggests that this is because of many peoples mentoring selections. It is easier for most men to build relationships with other men especially in the workplace. So this makes it easier for a man to ask for his mentor to go beyond guidance and ask to advocate and speak up for him to help build the corporate ladder. Women are set in ways of thinking that is they work hard thy will get noticed but in this fast paced world women need to be more vocal and clear with their goals in hopes of showing that they are just as capable of doing these high level management jobs.
I also think that there is still an idea of if a man and a woman become close and have a close relationship such as a mentor or other types of business relationships it is looked at as sexual or an unfit relationship for the workplace.
There are still several reasons that go into why this effect is still going on and that there is a long way to go before the workplace really will be 50/50.

Men or Women: Who Is The Better Leader?

This article talks about the various comparisons between men and women and who society feels is a better leader. There are even results to a characteristics survey that asks the public whether or not, for example, they believe men or women are more stubborn? More decisive? The results are rather interesting.

The article attempts to understand why so few women have made it to the highest levels of political or corporate leadership, stating a few reasons being because of gender discrimination, resistance to change, and even the “old boys club” excuse. However, the public or people surveyed never state that women lack what it takes to be a good leader. In fact, seven of the eight leadership traits measured in one of the surveys rate women as either better than or equal to men. So then why the drastic difference in leadership roles between the sexes???

In fact, the characteristics survey shows that people find men to be more arrogant, more ambitious, and more stubborn and women are showed to be more emotional, compassionate, creative, honest, and outgoing. And both genders are said to be equally intelligent and hardworking. I may be naturally biased by being a woman, but if I had to choose a leader based on this survey, the right choice seems pretty apparent.

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/932/men-or-women-whos-the-better-leader

Introductions

Team 2 consists of:

Kelli Hall
Jessica Moore
Angela Pitzo
America Alvarez
Amanda Tomac

The theme of the blog will be to discuss topics about women dealing with the "glass ceiling effect" in their organizations. We invite classmates to add their comments or opinions to this topic as well as recent articles they find that relate to this topic. We will post articles as well as discuss our opinions about the topic and ways that women have dealt with the situation.

MQM 382

MQM 382 team 2's blog